No.
This is the thing. The documents would have to show that under any other circumstance (were he not running for President) Trump would not have made the same choices. For what reasons may he have if NOT running for President? To sour public perception, to protect his family, to get rid off two gold diggers being a nuisance.
The documents will NOT be able to show this and as such any challenge no matter how well or poorly sourced will fail as John Edwards precedent showed.
So you all can regurgitate the media sensationalised smoking gun narrative talking point as much as you like as long as you know that this is not something that will hurt Trump.

The law doesn't change based on what the media, pundits, Trump worshippers, posters, or anyone else opines.

Accepting or making campaign contributions which exceed the established $$ limit and/or without filing and reporting them is an illegal campaign finance violation.  If the campaign accepts over $25,000 in illegal campaign contributions, it's a felony campaign finance violation.

Cohen admits that he arranged hush money (far in excess of $25,000) to be paid to silence women for the express purpose of helping Trump's election chances and knew it was illegal. Thus, he committed felony campaign finance violations, for which he'll serve time.

Pecker admits that he was part of that arrangement for the same express purpose and also knew it was illegal (which is why he didn't want any record of reimbursement to exist).  He is cooperating with the NY prosecutors in exchange for a non-prosecution agreement.

Cohen and Pecker admit that Trump was part of the arrangement, which the three of them devised in August 2015.  Trump is no longer insisting that he had no idea about any of it because evidence refutes that false narrative.  His new narrative is that (a) maybe it wasn't a crime anyway, and (b) even if it was a crime, he was ignorant to that fact.

That's the law and the facts-to-date.

This is my opinion -- since campaign finance violations require that the offender intentionally/knowingly broke the law, option (b) is Trump's best defense should he ever be charged. He would need to pray that Cohen doesn't have taped conversations indicating that Trump knew full well the arrangement was illegal.

I think option (a) would fall apart quickly because the payoffs for indiscretions happened a decade after-the-fact and just before the election, plus the two other parties involved in the payoffs swore under oath that the sole purpose was to benefit Trump's election chances.

The media does perpetuate their guesses and what if's quite a bit. Americans gullible enough swallow what they say. This creates a bunch of people that cannot answer any questions about the facts of the matter. The heads of networks know this and sell their wares to the unsuspecting public. Knowing full well that they will just run with what they say. When it gets proven wrong they move on to the next thing no matter how insignificant. Thirsty for info and impatient the people will not wait for the investigation to finish if it ever does. Or wait for a single day, instead they will say things like "well what if this is what is happening" The talking heads have quite a few people under their microphones. Who the heck do YOU believe?

(12-14-2018, 08:46 PM)HairOfTheDog Wrote: The law doesn't change based on what the media, pundits, Trump worshippers, posters, or anyone else opines.

Accepting or making campaign contributions which exceed the established $$ limit and/or without filing and reporting them is an illegal campaign finance violation.  If the campaign accepts over $25,000 in illegal campaign contributions, it's a felony campaign finance violation.

Cohen admits that he arranged hush money (far in excess of $25,000) to be paid to silence women for the express purpose of helping Trump's election chances and knew it was illegal. Thus, he committed felony campaign finance violations, for which he'll serve time.

Pecker admits that he was part of that arrangement for the same express purpose and also knew it was illegal (which is why he didn't want any record of reimbursement to exist).  He is cooperating with the NY prosecutors in exchange for a non-prosecution agreement.

Cohen and Pecker admit that Trump was part of the arrangement, which the three of them devised in August 2015.  Trump is no longer insisting that he had no idea about any of it because evidence refutes that false narrative.  His new narrative is that (a) maybe it wasn't a crime anyway, and (b) even if it was a crime, he was ignorant to that fact.

That's the law and the facts-to-date.

Is Cohen someone who has good standing and is not a serial liar. That is great because it was not long ago that he was caught in a number of lies involving Trump. But now he is absolutely telling the truth and nothing but the truth and NOT whatever will be what Mueller wants to hear to give him the shortest prison term?

Can we be completely honest here? Can we not pretend we do not know what is going on?

Can NOT we pretend that everyone is not moving the Hell away from Russia, Russia, Russia because there was absolutely nothing there to tie Trump and Russia in some tin foil hate conspiracy to steal the 2016 election from Hillary? Can we be honest in acknowledging that Mueller is scrambling and trying to find anyone to pin any crime on any one in any way associated with Trump? NOTHING to do with his mandate.

(12-14-2018, 08:47 PM)HairOfTheDog Wrote: This is my opinion -- since campaign finance violations require that the offender intentionally/knowingly broke the law, option (b) is Trump's best defense should he ever be charged. He would need to pray that Cohen doesn't have taped conversations indicating that Trump knew full well the arrangement was illegal.

I think option (a) would fall apart quickly because the payoffs for indiscretions happened a decade after-the-fact and just before the election, plus the two other parties involved in the payoffs swore under oath that the sole purpose was to benefit Trump's election chances.

There is ALWAYS going to be primary and secondary considerations. Would Trump CARE that these women were a nuisance? Yes. Would he be trying to shut these women up regardless? Yes. Would he have agreed to this if he was running for Presidency or not? YES!

You will not EVER be able to know what he actually thought or believed. Pretending that this is provable or verifiable is beyond stupid.

Cohen will not be put on any stand, he is not a reliable source.

Mags, President Trump and his allies have been the source for almost all the media coverage regarding the investigations (with the exception of indictments, pleas, or arrests -- which are public record and include evidence docs).

How each media outlet presents it is different. But, that's always been the case.

(12-14-2018, 09:30 PM)Maggot Wrote: Cohen will not be put on any stand, he is not a reliable source.

He may not ever testify in court.  I don't know.

But, I expect that some information he provided to prosecutors will be used in Mueller's report and possibly in cases against other defendents.  

Cohen's cooperation could be very useful and reliable when the information is corroborated by other witnesses, was documented contemporaneously, or was caught on tape.

WTF IS FRY GUY TRYING TO SAY UP THERE?
I"VE HAD THIS WINDOW OPEN FOR AN HOUR AND I AM FINALLY GOING TO CLOSE IT NOW.

TRUMP HAS SOME GOOD FALL GUYS AND GALS! MAY HE KEEP ON KEEPIN ON MAN CUZ HE AIN'T GUIlTY AND NEITHER IS HIS FAMILY OR MELANIA'S HAIR WHICH I SORT OF LOVE-ESPECIALLY WHEN SHE HAD THAT HAT ON-SHE LOOKED SO GANGSTER IT WAS HOT!

SO GIVE ME ALL OF THE SMOKING GUNS THEN! I WILL SMOKE THEM ALL!

(12-14-2018, 11:46 PM)MirahM Wrote: WTF IS FRY GUY TRYING TO SAY UP THERE?
I"VE HAD THIS WINDOW OPEN FOR AN HOUR AND I AM FINALLY GOING TO CLOSE IT NOW.

TRUMP HAS SOME GOOD FALL GUYS AND GALS! MAY HE KEEP ON KEEPIN ON MAN CUZ HE AIN'T GUIlTY AND NEITHER IS HIS FAMILY OR MELANIA'S HAIR WHICH I SORT OF LOVE-ESPECIALLY WHEN SHE HAD THAT HAT ON-SHE LOOKED SO GANGSTER IT WAS HOT!

SO GIVE ME ALL OF THE SMOKING GUNS THEN! I WILL SMOKE THEM ALL!

Possibly made sense in your head before you started typing. Shame.

Yes, shame.

I was actually trying to bring some spam to a politcal thread-since you brought some politics to one of my not serious threads in the not serious section of the forum.

That is all.

Cool. Do I get the sequel? The first chapter was captivating.

Breaking news! Absolute bombshell!, The walls are closing in! he's underwater!, it's a tipping point!

That explains everything. *nods*

McDougal is muy caliente, stormy not so much id still let her rub my belly though.

Rub da Buddha. RubRubRub.

I hope the judge gives Mike Flynn some jail time, or at least very strict probation.

He's trying to play both sides against the middle, in my opinion, and not accepting full responsibility for his actions.  

In regards to his communications with Russia.........he lied to the VP (which got him fired, according to Trump), lied to the FBI (which got him criminally charged), pleaded guilty, and cooperated with Mueller's team.

And, it appears he cooperated so fully that he was given a pass regarding similar undeclared/paid lobbying on behalf of Turkey during the same time-frame, though his business partner and another Trump transition team associate were both indicted on that front.

Mueller recommended a very sweet deal for Flynn in recognition of his past military service to the country and his 'substantial cooperation' with Mueller's investigators (no jail time, which is also Flynn's attorney's request).  

And, still, Flynn and his attorney are trying to peddle bullshit and Trump is helping to propagate it.

The FBI had no obligation to tell Flynn that lying to them was a crime, which Flynn would obviously know anyway.  And, they did tell him he could have a lawyer present for their questions, which he declined. 

Flynn will be sentenced later this morning.

I am so curious to know what his cooperation entailed. Given this sweetheart deal it must have been substantial. He needs to do some time, he is still dickin' around. These fuckin' people. Jesus. Why is Cohen a rat and Flynn a great guy? HuhHuhHuh?

Flynn will get nothing. He will be exonerated. Next.

(12-18-2018, 12:21 PM)Duchess Wrote: I am so curious to know what his cooperation entailed. Given this sweetheart deal it must have been substantial. He needs to do some time, he is still dickin' around. These fuckin' people. Jesus. Why is Cohen a rat and Flynn a great guy? HuhHuhHuh?

Down the line, when it becomes clear what information Flynn provided to Mueller's team, Trump might start calling Flynn a rat too.

On a separate but related note...........did you see the details yesterday of the Senate-sponsored analysis of the misinformation campaign launched by Russia during the 2016 campaign?

Some key take-aways:

1.  Russian operatives launched over 10 million tweets, over 1,000 YouTube videos, roughly 116,000 Instagram posts and more than 60,000 unique Facebook posts in their effort to bolster Trump..........that translated to a reach of over 120 million people on Facebook and 20 million on its subsidiary, Instagram. 

2.  There was a broad voter suppression effort aimed at African Americans.

3.  Russia's campaign continued after the election and focused on pro-Trump rhetoric, along with misinformation regarding Special Counsel Mueller.  The misinformation campaign, designed to sow divisions among Americans, is still ongoing.

The heads of Facebook, Google, Twitter and other platforms are under the gun to better manage their content and their users' privacy. It doesn't appear they have been fully forthcoming in their congressional testimonies.  

Senate Intelligence leaders called for action from Silicon Valley in the wake of the findings. The panel's chairman, Richard Burr (R-N.C.), said the reports "are proof positive that one of the most important things we can do is increase information sharing between the social media companies who can identify disinformation campaigns and the third-party experts who can analyze them.”

More:
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/12/1...rt-1067113
https://www.vox.com/world/2018/12/17/181...-instagram